Gundam Guys Gen
by ingvild
Summary: Genfic shorts focussing on one or more male Gundam Wing characters. Each chapter is a standalone ficlet. May have been previously featured on LJ's gw500 community. I don't know why the first line of each chapter has been duplicated.
1. Chapter 1: Zechs

Disclaimer: Not mine

**Disclaimer: **Not mine

**A/N: **A series of one-shots focussing on one or more of the Gundam Wing guys. Every chapter is stand-alone.

**A Great Fall**

**AC 182. Luxembourg**.

The palace in Sanc Kingdom is still on fire, and the king and queen are dead. The stranger doesn't say anything as he hands over a sleeping young boy.

Khushrenada looks at the pale-haired child, then looks up at the stranger. "What of the princess?"

The stranger shakes his head. "Relena Peacecraft is no more. The king wanted his son to live, whatever it takes."

"You realise that I will raise him as a soldier. "

"Whatever it takes" the stranger repeats, before turning to leave. Within a minute the darkness swallows him.

Khushrenada looks after him for a long minute, before closing the door and making his way up to Treize's bedroom. Let Milliardo sleep there tonight. Tomorrow they will leave the base and go back to the country estate.

"We could dye your hair."

"No."

"We could dress you as a pauper, or a servant, or a girl."

"No."

Treize sighs. "Milliardo, we have to hide you somehow. The world thinks you're dead."

The six-year-old looks up from where he has been arranging the tin soldiers Treize gave him. Though only ten, Treize was no longer playing with them, and gave them to the newly orphaned prince. He can use other things for strategy games.

"I could...change my name? Hide my face somehow?"

"All right. William?"

"No."

"Gunther?"

"No."

"Elleve?"

"No."

"Paul?"

"No."

Treize's lips twitch. "Mildred."

"_No._"

"You're not making this easy. Hmm, sixth name..."

"That."

"Excuse me?"

"Sixth. Six. Zechs."

The newly named Zechs Merquise wears a soft mask of black cloth because, unfortunately, the same fire that killed his mother and four younger siblings left him with burns that ache when exposed to the cold air. And if he keeps the mask on even when he's indoors, few care. The boy is only a companion for Master Treize; he's not important enough to care about.

**AC 190. Lake Victoria.**

"Zechs, come on. It's our last week, can't you join us for a game?"

Zechs looks up at the girl standing there, looking at him pleadingly. Noin is the only one at the whole damn academy worth anything, so he's allowed himself to become her friend, but he has no interest in any of the others.

He continues to arrange the tin soldiers in battle formations. "I prefer not. The sooner I'm out of here, the sooner I can begin my life."

Uninvited, Noin jumps up into his bunk, jarring the formation of soldiers. She begins to arrange them in a different pattern. "Zechs, please. You need to care about people. Be a friend, and they'll be your friend in return." She grips his chin and forces him to meet her eyes. "Friends are allies, Zechs. And allies are good."

She jumps off the bunk again and walks out of the boy's dorm. Zechs looks at his tin soldiers. The pattern Noin arranged them in is subtly different from his own; they seem to rely on watching each others' backs.

Zechs grins minutely and moves to join the game of _Risk._.

**AC 195. In the air.**

That damned terrorist! How dare he kill _Zechs'_ soldiers!? Although...Two with one shot? Not too shabby.

**AC 195. Camp outside the Sanc Kingdom.**

"Long live...King Zechs!"

Oh, no. _Otto_. Why did he...How...

How did Zechs come to inspire such loyalty?

He has to make sure he's worth it.

**AC 195. Libra.**

What happened to Zechs Merquise? What happened to Milliardo Peacecraft?

Sanc is ruined. Relena doesn't know if he's her brother or a monster. Otto is dead. Treize was betrayed. Noin is loyal to him, but does he deserve it? And Heero, that little terrorist, had the nerve to become a good person.

Milliardo Peacecraft isn't a good person. He misses being Zechs Merquise. At least Zechs had integrity.

Epyon whispers to him, shows him possibilites, options.

He picks up the box of tin soldiers, then tosses them out an airlock. Like fragments of a broken life, they float there in outer space.

One way or another, he's ending this.


	2. Chapter 2: Treize

Nothing more than a little boy

**Nothing more than a little boy**

It surprised him that Zechs was surprised.

Zechs' words had come over the radio, disbelief in his voice. _"A boy. The Gundam pilot is nothing more than a little boy?"_

Treize thought about the young man who had accepted his challenge to a sword fight. He had been young as well. Fourteen or fifteen, perhaps. Small for his age, but most colonists hit their growth spurt late.

He had told Zechs about the duel, but never thought to mention his opponent's age.

Why was Zechs surprised? Treize was not.

He was twenty-four years old and had been leader of OZ for two years. He had been in charge of missions when he was seventeen.

Why should he be surprised?

Zechs had been recruited into Oz at nine. His best friend had been Treize's assistant at a mission when she was twelve.

Why would either of them be surprised?

Treize replayed the recording from Zechs' Tallgeese. The young boy accepting his mission with a complete lack of hesitation, and pressing the button on the detonator. His tiny body being flung from the noble machine before he was picked up by the other Gundam, looking most of all like a broken doll.

Everyone in the base had been in shock. They had all heard Zechs' statement when the child stepped out on the hatch.

They weren't soldiers, these Gundam pilots. They were terrorists. Freedom fighters. They depended on blending in and disappearing when they weren't out destroying things. Who would suspect a child? It was a supreme strategy, a wonderful cover.

Nothing more than a little boy? Oh no. Zechs was wrong there. That child – all of those children – was much, much more. They were hope and despair, love and hate, war and peace. Contradiction upon contradiction rolled up in small bodies and soft round faces and gazes with steel in them. Innocence and guilt. Death and life. Murderers and lifegivers, angels and devils. The children who destroyed in order to build.

Treize wondered if he should tell Zechs that Zero One had protected Zechs' precious sister when Une sent mobile suits to kill her. Better not. Better let him continue to think Treize ignorant of this sister's continued existence, to let him think the mobile suits had been after the Gundam pilot instead.

Relena Darlian. Relena Peacecraft. Orphaned once at Romafeller's hands, half-orphaned a second time at Treize and Une's hands. A child with large, soulful eyes and a will of steel.

How could Zechs wonder at the Gundam pilots' ages when he was already pouring all his hope into this tiny slip of a sister?

Children saw the world in other terms than adults. Children, no matter how jaded, saw the world in simpler terms. That was why Oz began recruiting when the children were so young. It was so easy to mall their young minds into perfect little soldiers.

The Gundam pilots had to be older. They weren't soldiers, they were guerrilla fighters. They had to make their own decisions. They had to know more.

But still young enough not to question too much.

It had to be children. Still pure enough to do this for the greater good, still innocent enough to see this complicated situation as simple, but old enough to figure out what to do next themselves. The scientist had surrendered. The Gundam pilots would receive no further orders. Would they prove strong enough to continue?

Besides, thought Treize, the children had a chance at life after all this, when others would be too damaged by the war.


	3. Chapter 3: Rashid

Shepherd

**Shepherd**

When he was a boy, only ten years hatched, Rashid was sent out to herd the goats.

He would go with some of the older boys, or sometimes even some of the girls, and they would sit on a sandy hill and watch the goats eat what little vegetation they could find. The desert grows with every year, and the Maguanac village have found it necessary to build their own areas for growing things, but back then, there was still enough grass around to add to the goats' diet of leftovers and garbage.

Once, when it was just him and two others out there, the wind started blowing. Like any desert dwellers, whether they were born or hatched, the Maguanac children knew that a desert storm is deadlier than most any other storm (except possibly an ice storm). The wind is one thing, but the whirling sand would strip the flesh of a poor soul's bones as easily as a jackal, and in such a featureless landscape as the desert it is nearly impossible to find ones way once one gets lost even in the best conditions.

As the children gathered the goats in order to make their way back to the village, Rashid did a quick count. One of the kids was missing.

Rashid alerted the other two children and said that he was just going to look behind the next dune. Perhaps it was his earnest face, or perhaps it was because most everyone forgot Rashid's real age – at ten he was already the size of most fifteen-year-olds – or perhaps they merely did not think that anyone would be stupid enough to go risk their life for a goat. They agreed and started driving the herd back.

Of course the goat was not behind the dune. However, the ground was hard here and the wind quieter, and the tracks were not obliterated yet. Rashid continued.

When he found the kid it was too late to turn. Hoping desperately that the others had managed to drive the rest of the herd back without him, Rashid gathered up the kid – it was still small enough and he was big enough to lift it without problem – and made his way to one large sandbank which had cacti growing through it. Digging in one of the hollows, he managed to hit solid rock with an outspring. Covering himself and the goat with his leather cloak the two huddled together hoping that the wind would not turn and whip the sand directly at them.

When they were found after the storm had passed, Rashid got a solid tongue lashing and was forbidden from leaving the village for six months. He also received a pair of goggles.

Rashid watches as the other pilots of the Maguanac Corps scold Master Quatre for going off without them. He watches as the Master smile his innocent smile, and does not believe it for a second.

Because he knows that he and Quatre are opposite and the same. Rashid was thought older because of his appearance, Quatre is thought to be younger and more innocent. Rashid did something very stupid, while Quatre seems wise beyond his years. Rashid would not leave the goat behind, while Quatre will continue to leave his stubborn goats behind. Because they both have a burning desire to protect.


	4. Chapter 4: Dekim

Disillusioned and delusional

**Disillusioned and delusional**

Yuy was delusional. Peace couldn't come the way he thought. Earth would never allow it.

Dekim knew it would happen long before it did, but it was still a shock and a personal failure when a bullet went through Heero Yuy's body and he dropped down stone dead. It was quick, clean, professional and efficient, and the assassin was long gone by the time the crowd had stopped panicking enough to let anyone get through.

Dekim had arranged the tour Yuy was on when he was assassinated. He had been responsible for the security. He had discussed political strategy and been frustrated with Yuy's unwillingness to employ certain methods.

Yuy's death was a loss for the colonies, to be sure, but in the oppressive atmosphere imposed by the Alliance afterwards, Dekim could finally begin to plan his own long-term strategy, on his terms.

The identity of Yuy's assassin came unexpectedly from Romafeller. Apparently Odin Lowe had severed all connection with the Foundation, and sent the people who went after him back in pieces. One of the very few who knew of the plot and who had carried it out had been angered enough by this that he sent Dekim a note, unconcerned that this confirmed Romafeller's own culpability.

It took them years to track Lowe down, and in the meantime, another great pacifist fell. The destruction of Sanc Kingdom seemed to confirm what Dekim had believed for some time – that pacifism was nothing more than pretty words, and would never work in reality. When they finally did locate Lowe, they discovered that he had picked up an apprentice. Dekim studied the features of the tiny child with Lowe in the sneakshot briefly, but didn't think too much about him. He was insignificant. Underlings weren't important enough.

Personally putting a bullet in Lowe's body was deeply satisfying. He and Quinze looked briefly for the boy, but didn't bother too much. More important things were at stake.

Leia was a foolish and romantic girl, but she was a good age and fertile enough. Khushrenada didn't need much convincing – he was seventeen year old male, after all – but the drug cocktail certainly helped. When Khushrenada left Leia was pregnant, and Dekim had stolen seed from the best Romafeller and Oz had to offer in order to build his own empire.

He was even satisfied enough to let Leia name her daughter. Mariemaia was bright and vivacious, and both Leia and her uncle Trowa doted upon her. Trowa was even satisfied with knowing that Mariemaia would be leader of the Earth once it was conquered, and he would merely be her enforcer. Leia, on the other hand, was upset about it. In a show of more brains than he had previously credited her with, she confronted him and told him that he merely wanted to use her daughter as a convenient symbol to draw fire while he did the real job. Dekim told her that the generals always did the real work, while the world leaders were only needed to declare wars and sign peace treaties. Leia threatened to take Mariemaia away. Dekim informed her rather coldly that now that she had provided him with a grandchild, she was no longer necessary.

It was still mildly upsetting when he had to dispose of her a year later. He never told Trowa. The boy was too attached to his sister.

Time passed and the scientists completed the Gundams in time for Operation Meteor. Dekim never did find out who the pilot of Sandrock was, and this annoyed him a little, but he knew that the pilot of Heavyarms, his own Trowa Barton, would tell him as soon as he found out. For Shenlong he heard the name Meiran Chang – it was only later that he found out that Chang had died and the pilot was her husband Wufei. Deathscythe's Duo Maxwell meant nothing to him, but he hesitated when he heard the name of Wing's pilot.

Heero Yuy.

He had to admire J's morbid sense of humour, to give the name of a renowned pacifist to a terrorist sent to destroy the Earth.

The admiration disappeared when time passed and he realised that the scientists had upstaged him and changed the Gundam pilots' orders. What was worse was that Heavyarms' pilot was Trowa Barton - _but not his son_.

In his fury after this Quinze had enough and left. Dekim could have told him that his silly White Fang would never work. Quinze wasn't a leader, and he foolishly trusted a Peacecraft to lead in his stead. The Peacecrafts weren't competent enough, and how that little girl managed to convince the world otherwise, he would never know.

His brother went down with Libra like a good captain, but Dekim was the general. Always in the background, directing the flow. However, now was almost the time to take centre stage.

The coup went off perfectly. Treize's second did her best, but he had too big a head start on her. The recruitment of Chang and the boy who had stolen his son's name was a bonus. The Peacecraft girl, now calling herself Darlian again but he knew her true colours, was annoying, but her words meant nothing. Deeper meaning of fighting? What meaning was there, other than to win?

And then it all began to go wrong.

He should never have let Chang persuade him to let the name-thief live, because there he was, fighting along Sandrock, Deathscythe, Tallgeese and Taurus against Dekim's Serpents. It was futile...

...What was that fool girl doing?

"It's much too early for your appearance, Miss Former Queen." He didn't bother listening to her response. No longer a Peacecraft? Like that was something she could just get rid of.

"Nothing can be achieved with revenge!"

She was wrong, wrong, so wrong. Look at what he had achieved! This was revenge, revenge for Yuy, for his son, his brother...his daughter.

He was the master planner, and he had won. The Gundams had stopped fighting.

"Another Gundam confirmed, sir, it's in the sky."

_What?_ "What?"

"Mister Dekim, we're online with one of the Gundam pilots."

"Heero!"

He didn't need to hear Dar..._Peacecraft's_ exclamation to know who this was. Pilot 01, the pilot of Wing who took over Wing Zero. Heero Yuy. Dekim's knees suddenly felt weak, not because of the pilot's reputation but because he recognised that face. The boy was twice as old now as he had been the first time Dekim saw him, but there was no mistaking those eyes. J had given Heero Yuy's name to his assassin's apprentice. Any admiration Dekim might have had of the morbid humour in it vanished at the realisation of this...obscenity.

He only barely heard the boy's question. "What are you planning?" But he knew. He knew before the shot came and rocked the supposedly secure shelter to its core.

"Gather all the Serpents here! Shoot down Wing Zero!" Get rid of him, get rid of this boy who had usurped Yuy's name, whose eyes seemed to strip his soul bare. Yuy had died five years before this little brat was even born. How could he have his gaze?

The second shot did more than rock the shelter.

"This is impossible! How can this be happening!?" They were dead, all his plans would go up in smoke, unless..."Stop it. Don't you realise Relena Peacecraft is in here?"

For a moment he thought it had worked, but then he looked at her and realised how she could have moved a world, and how this boy could have saved it. Hope, strength, purity. The third shot came, and the shelter collapsed.

He was dimly aware of Treize's second sprinting into the room and pushing Mariemaia and Peacecraft...Darlian...Relena to safety.

Somehow it wasn't surprising that Chang had turned coat again, but the people came as a shock. Who the hell were they? What did they matter? They were insignificant!

A tiny part of his mind that was still capable of rational thought pointed out that he'd thought the same about an eight-year-old apprentice assassin.

He felt Treize's second's cool glance, noticed Mariemaia standing with her and Relena. He'd lost.

No. Yuy was long dead, and this little upstart with his name had just shot himself to pieces. He could still salvage the situation...

His last hope burst when Relena's palm met with Mariemaia's cheek.

Mistakes? Mistakes? He'd show her mistakes...

Oh.

"We can always create a replacement for Mariemaia. I made her, after all!"

"Dekim!"

The shot came from nowhere. An underling? It took an eternity for his body to hit the ground. He thought he saw them – both Heero Yuys, all the Peacecrafts...

Had he ever really been in charge?

He died.


	5. Chapter 5: Auda and Rashid

Waiting for Master Quatre

Disclaimer: Not mine.

**Waiting for Master Quatre**

Auda found Rashid standing in front of Sandrock.

"The evacuations have finished, Captain," he said. "The civilians are safely away."

Rashid nodded, but didn't say anything. He kept looking at the Gundam.

Auda came up beside him. "It's almost like it's taunting us, isn't it?"

Rashid gave him a sharp glance. "What do you mean by that?"

Auda looked away, uncomfortable. "Well...With Sandrock, we could beat these guys. Not that can't do it anyway," he hastily added, "but with Sandrock victory would be completely sure. But the damn cockpit is fitted for a person who's much smaller than any of us. We could adjust it, sure, but now it's too late."

"Master Quatre will need it when he comes," Rashid said. "We can't make it unfit for him. We will just have to make do with nothing but our own suits." He smiled, suddenly. "We managed before Master Quatre came to us, we will manage now."

"The battles were never this dire before," Auda pointed out. He swallowed, before bursting out what was on his mind: "How can you be so sure that Master Quatre will come?"

"He has never let us down before," Rashid answered quietly.

The village was burning.

_This is not going well_, Auda thought. He could hear someone shout, "Show them what the Maguanac Corps is made of!" and had to bite his own tongue to keep from answering, "We're made of blood, guts and bone, and if this keeps up, we will show them exactly that!" This really wasn't looking good...

He obeyed Rashid's order to take the Third Unit to the left wing, and the attacking troops retreated to regroup, but he couldn't help but wonder how they were ever going to turn this battle...

...What was that?

"Master Quatre! Captain, Master Quatre is here!"

He saw Rashid's face light up on the vidscreen.

Auda hurried out on the hatch of his mobile suit. "You came back!" He couldn't keep the wonder and relief out of his voice. "We have something for you, Master!"

Quatre was looking up at him, eyes shining. "I know! I came back for it!"

_The captain was right,_ Auda thought, as Quatre piloted Sandrock into the fray. _He has yet to let us down._


	6. Chapter 6: Howard and Zechs

Title: Suiting Up

Disclaimer: Not mine

**Suiting Up**

The suit was an engineering masterpiece. Larger, stronger, better than any other mobile suit, it was meant to herald in a new era of mobile suit making.

Howard would spend his nights pouring over the plans and his days watching the beautiful machine come to life under his (and the other engineers') hands. Tallgeese was like nothing ever seen before.

When the first test pilot died, something inside everyone who had worked on it died as well.

The suit was too tough. The only test pilots who survived were the ones who pulled back in time. Howard wondered vaguely how they managed to keep getting test pilots with the fatality rate so high, but he guessed that the employers simply left out that detail. The engineers told themselves that this had nothing to do with them. However, after a time the need to see Tallgeese move faded in the face of concern for human life. The test pilots started getting anonymous tip offs, and stopped coming.

That was when the volunteers started showing up.

There was something wrong with these volunteers. They did not have the will to live. They pushed themselves to their limit, and Tallgeese looked beautiful in motion, but the volunteers, with their dead eyes and odd smiles, all died.

Someone muttered "post-traumatic stress" and theorized that these volunteer test pilots just wanted to escape from everything, but die in a glorious manner.

It was wrong. Tallgeese was not supposed to be a glorified death machine.

And then someone had the idea to bring in a freedom fighter.

The freedom fighter was desperate and willing to die for her cause, but she was also not suicidal. She wanted to gain freedom for her people and preferably live to see it – but if the last was impossible, she was willing to die.

She drove Tallgeese further than anyone else had ever managed.

Before she was able to destroy the base Tallgeese had been in and escape with a perfect weapon to her group, the employers pressed the switch that would let the small bomb they had put in her head without her knowledge explode. They spent two days scrubbing blood, bone and brain matter from the cockpit, before Tallgeese was retired. The suit was too unpredictable.

Howard thought that one day, perhaps, a person would stumble over the suit that was perfectly suited for it (pun not intended).

And so he helps Zechs update Tallgeese for its battle with Mariemaia's serpent troops, adding the snake chain from Epyon, but keeping it basically Tallgeese – because Zechs understood that suit, but Epyon nearly destroyed him.


End file.
